Almost Like Home: Living in Bradfield Park

The planned garden suburb of Bradfield has disappeared and is now part of Lindfield. This book is about the area between Fiddens Wharf Road and Lady Game Drive, the site of Bradfield Park. The period 1938 to 1973 saw many uses:

1938 Australasian Scout Jamboree

1940-46 RAAF Station Bradfield Park

1947-64 Housing Settlement

1949-51 Refugee Hostel

1951-71 Migrant Hostel

1973 CSIRO

This is the story of the many thousands of men, women and children who lived in an ex-RAAF camp at Bradfield Park in post-war Sydney.

In 1947 the Housing Commission of NSW leased part of the camp for emergency housing. From 1949, part of the site also housed European refugees, and later British migrants. Families shared the sub-divided fibro Air Force huts, freezing in winter, stifling in summer, a paradise for the children, a time of trial for the adults.

After the Housing Commission camp closed in 1964, and the migrant camp in 1971, even the name was all but lost. Now Michael Hogan and KHS are telling this chapter of Sydney's history, with the stories and photos of those who lived there.